THE SEVEN SISTERS.

“ We are seven.” Wordsworth.

SOME years back, a new Viceroy was being shown the wonders of his temporary kingdom, and among these the Taj at Agra held, of course, an important place. Arrived before the glorious monument of Eastern love and pride, ‘ ‘ the artless Aide-de-Camp was mute ; the gilded staff were still ‘ ‘ as Kipling says, in anxious expectation of the comment of His Excellency. But this, alas i when it came was merely the remark: “What are those funny little birds ? ‘ ‘ The shock must have been the greater for the fact that the mean fowls thus honoured were it seems, of that singularly disreputable species which is commonly known in India as the “Seven Sisters” or “Seven Brothers,” or by the Hindustani equivalent of sat-bhai. In books it gets called the Jungle Babbler, the first part of the name being inappropriate, for it is found everywhere, and the last singularly happy, for it does babble with a vengeance. As may be inferred from their popular names, these birds go about in small packs of about half-a-dozen there are not invariably seven, nor can these be a family party, since only three or four eggs are laid. They hop about searching for food on the ground or branches, murmuring squeakily to themselves meanwhile, and ever and anon burst out into a startling volley of wheezy hysterical chatter, which gets terribly upon one’s nerves in time in a place where they are common. Lin- naeus, when he called the bird Turdus canorus, the tuneful thrush, must have been wildly ignorant of it, or have hopelessly mixed it up with an ally and a real songster, the huamei of China (Trochalopterum cano- rum ), which he included under the same name.  Modern ornithologists call our babbling brotherhood Crateropus canorus, placing them in a different family from the true thrushes, to which they nevertheless bear a strong general resemblance in form and size.  But the differences are very soon perceptible if one studies the living birds. Your thrush is sleek, stiff, and starch ; he is a musical artist, but allows himself no artistic license in his dress, which is neat to primness. The Babblers, on the contrary, have a fluffy, frowsy appearance ; their tails hang loosely, and their wings, which are short, are not neatly tucked up as they should be, but lie anyhow. Nor have they the excuse of pleasing colour, such as many clumsy birds can boast of ; a brownish grey, of ‘ ‘unpar alleled dignitude” as Baboo Jabberjee would say, is almost the only hue visible in their attire, and is not particularly well set off by a white eye like a jackdaw’s and whitish legs and bill of an unpleasantly anaemic appearance. There is, however, a real interest attaching to these disre- putable-looking birds. We are all familiar with Lamb’s appallingly ugly lady whose facial turpitude was supposed to be atoned for by the possession of superlative moral excellence ; and unquestionably fraternal affection is the strong point of the babbling brotherhood. In the grave pages of the Asiatic Society’s Journal a friend of mine has recorded his frequent experience of the devoted courage with which these feeble-winged creatures will rush to the defence of a comrade held in the grip of a trained hawk . on one occasion the victim was actually rescued by its com- rades before the hawk could receive its master’s assistance, and on another, one of the Babblers was caught by hand as it clung to the back of its relative’s murderer. No one, so far as I am aware, has recorded behaviour anything like this on the part of our song-thrush (Turdus musicus), who appears to be rather a coward, although his near relative the missel -thrush (Turdus viscivorus) will show fight boldly in defence of his home and mate. And with regard to these Babblers courage appears to be a variable quality even in this particular species ; for Dr. Jerdon expressly states that the Jungle Babbler will not attack a trained hawk flown at the flock as the bolder Mahratta Babbler (Argya makolmi) will. Dehra Dun, therefore, where the above incident occurred, must be inhabited by a peculiarly warlike clan of Crateropus canorus, and certainly they are very numerous there and obtrusively noisy. That sociability is a passion with the species no one who has studied it can doubt ; I have kept several, and have found that they almost invariably exhibited the spirit of the poet’s goldfinch, who  A prison with a friend preferred To liberty without.” If one found himself outside the cage which contained the happy family, he “did his possible” to get in again without any thought of escape. It may be ungenerously suggested that such birds are afraid to go about alone, lest their ribald remarks, made in the security of numbers, meet with a just retaliation at the beaks and claws of outraged bird society ; and so it may be, but nevertheless there is a well-spring of sincere sociability under the Babbler’s frowsy feathering. On the comparatively rare occasions when my captives were still, they employed themselves in affectionately tickling each other’s heads as they cuddled together, and I have even seen one diligently employed in endeavouring to clean the wing of a friend, soiled by the bird lime with which its capture had been effected. At the same time it must be admitted that the addition to their ordinary diet of table scraps of such a delicacy as a cockroach was apt to produce a sad disruption of fraternal harmony. On such occasions one might see one brother prone in the sand, while another, holding his head “ in chancery” with one foot, was punching the same with his beak in a manner calculated to awake grave fears for the integrity of the sufferer’s skull when the punishment should be over ; and once I saw two birds adherent with bill and claw to one and the same cockroach, which a third was devouring, as neither of the joint owners dared to let go his hold ! These traits of character would seem to show that Crateropus canorus is in about the same stage of moral evolution as that represented by the public school boy, a gallant defender of his kind against the assaults of “cads,” “nippers,” and “ vulgar plebs” generally, but inclined also to be severe on them in individual disputes.

The reason for the development of such clannishness is obvious when the very weak flight of this bird is noticed ; the short wings are beaten quickly for a short distance, and the labour is economised by a gliding skim till a fresh effort is required ; and with such a method of flight escape by aerial evolutions is very much at a discount. On his feet the Babbler is much more at home, and hops along with considerable speed, never running smoothly as the true thrushes often do. He differs from these birds also in another noticeable point in the use of the feet, having the crow-like habit of using them to hold anything large he is eating a thing no thrush would stoop to do or think of doing, more likely. Babblers also resemble crows and differ from most thrushes in the young birds being like their parents ; young thrushes being, as everyone knows, much more spotted than old ones. Whether the Babblers go through any elaborate courtship ceremony I cannot say ; male and female are equally ugly, but this does not prevent some birds from making themselves ridi- culous before the object of their affections, and possibly these are among the number a Babbler could not be dignified if he tried. Their nest is just about the sort of abode one would expect them to build, a simple cup, more or less loose and untidy, placed almost anywhere in shrubs or trees. But the eggs are the one beautiful thing about the bird, being of that lovely blue so noticeable in the hedge-sparrow’s at home, and very glossy in addition.  As above implied the young -ones fledge off very like the old, but they have dark brown instead of white eyes.  A very plump one I experimentally ate tasted much like a quail, and herein perhaps lies an economic possibility for the “Seven Sisters ;” the clan would just about fill a pie.  The French in Algeria regard the local babbler there (Argya fulva) as gibier, but their notions in that matter are known to be liberal ; witness the colonists in New Caledonia who used to eat the local crow, until one day a native asked one of these sportsmen why the white men ate what they reli- giously avoided, giving as a reason, when questioned, that the said crows ate them when exposed dead on platforms in the forest according to custom. After this crow ceased to figure in the Colonial menu.

The said Algerian Babbler is the nearest of the family to Europe, and generally speaking, babblers inhabit Africa and the Oriental region only. Our familiar suburban friend, which is found all over India, is the only one about here in a wild state, though several of his more or less close relatives may be met with at bird-dealer’s places, including the abovementioned huamei of China, recognizable by its russet plumage and white eyebrows, and another species common to that country and Further India, the slate-coloured, white-checked Chinese mocking-bird or peko (Dryonastes chinensis), which, though obviously of the vulgar babbler family, is a finer songster than almost any bird I have heard, and a mocker to boot. Some day, possibly, when people begin to realize that desirable birds can be cultivated in gardens as well as desirable plants (the efforts of humanity in the former direction hitherto having been largely expended in the acclimatization of nuisances) we may have the peko making our gardens melodious and supplanting the “ shrieking sisterhood” altogether a consummation devoutly to be wished, although, till some such better bird takes their place* their industriously insectivorous habits may give . them a raison d’etre.